OverDrive s app Libby puts a librarian on your phone
OverDrive’s app Libby puts a librarian on your phone
GARFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio — Whether you’re an avid library patron, or couldn’t find your library card on a bet, Libby wants to help you find a superb summer read.
Libby, a fresh app designed by Garfield Heights-based OverDrive, makes it effortless to borrow ebooks from libraries and love them on a smartphone or other portable device. Libby, with an icon that looks like a friendly librarian, is designed to hook people who don’t habitually read or use their local library.
Just download the free app, then input your library card number and begin searching thousands of digital titles available at libraries.
“We dreamed to make it like having your own private guide on your phone,” said Shannon Lichty, director of Playmate Services at OverDrive, a digital distributor and reading platform for libraries and schools.
OverDrive designed Libby to be effortless to navigate. “It’s one tap to get commenced,” Lichty said. “Libby is designed to get people reading as quickly as possible.”
Libby launched June twenty at the American Library Association Annual Conference in Chicago. The app has been in beta testing since December 2016.
The app can help users:
- Go to their local library’s website to sign up for a library card.
- Search by author name, series name or genre.
- Borrow, read, renew and comeback ebooks, all with one tap.
- Sign in to numerous libraries, if you have a card with each library.
- Take notes and place bookmarks.
Libby accesses digital copies of books at thousands of public libraries across the country that use OverDrive, including Northeast Ohio library systems, Lichty said. The app can look for fresh and old titles, audio books, upcoming titles, classics and read-alongs, which let youthfull readers see a book’s text and hear a narration at the same time.
The app’s virtual bookshelf lists all the titles you have borrowed or have placed on hold, meaning you are in line to get a copy when one becomes available. You’ll get an email notice when a book on hold is available. An “activity page” shows titles that have been borrowed, placed on hold or returned.
Libby is available for desktop computers running Windows Ten, as well as Android, Apple and Kindle devices. Download it from the Google Play Store and iTunes. There’s no need to register your devices in order to use it, which makes Libby different from the older OverDrive app, Lichty said.
OverDrive, founded in 1986, is a digital distributor and reading platform for libraries and schools. The company serves more than 36,000 libraries and schools around the world, and has a catalog of more than Three.Five million titles.
